Sports: Son, team carry on

Son, team carry on

Dale Earnhardt Jr. tries to focus and Dale Sr.'s car owner, Richard Childress, does what the late driver asked of him.

By KEVIN KELLY

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- When his best friend died seven years ago, Dale Earnhardt was shaken to his emotional core.

"I can't go fishing on my lake anymore," Earnhardt said after Neil Bonnett died in a crash at Daytona International Speedway, "because Neil used to fish there."

But he and car owner Richard Childress took Bonnett's death as a sign, an opportunity to discuss what they would do should something just as unexpected happen to them.

"We talked about what would happen if I was in Africa and got run over by an elephant, or fell off of a mountain, or if something happened to him in whatever manner," Childress said Friday. "Both of us are racers. Dale Earnhardt was a racer. We made a pledge to each other that we would go on."

Moving on has been tough for Childress since Earnhardt died in a last-lap crash during the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

But there Childress was, tears in his eyes, sitting beside the 25-year-old replacement for Earnhardt during his first news conference since his friend's death.

Kevin Harvick will drive a white No. 29 Chevrolet in the Dura-Lube 400 on Sunday at North Carolina Speedway.

"We're going to do what Dale would want us to do, and that's race this week," Childress said. "It's tough. It'll be the toughest thing we'll do when that green flag falls ... start that race without Dale Earnhardt."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start his 41st career Winston Cup race on Sunday but the first without his father's familiar black No. 3 Chevrolet in the field.

"I miss my father," Earnhardt Jr. said Friday. "And I've cried for him out of my own selfish pity is the reason for those emotions.

"I'm just trying to maintain a good focus for the future and just remembering he's in a better place, a place that we all want to be."

Friends and co-workers say the 26-year-old has matured much since his father's death. It became clear when he stood up for Sterling Marlin during his first public comments since the wreck.

Contact between Earnhardt and Marlin started the chain of events that led to the driver's death. Marlin received death threats in the days after the race.

"I do want to say any notion or any idea or any blame placed upon anyone, whether it be Sterling Marlin or anybody else for that matter, is ridiculous and will not be tolerated," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think it's completely incredible some of the things I've heard or been told about."

Earnhardt Sr., a ninth-grade dropout who became a savvy businessman, had a lasting effect on those who knew him best, particularly those who drive cars owned by his team, Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Steve Park drove his first race for the team in 1997 but didn't win until August.

"It's easy to say I wish I didn't know Dale as well as I did because it probably wouldn't hurt so much," Park said. "I wouldn't give up any of the time we've spent together. He's obviously given me the opportunity of a lifetime to be successful, and he's taught us all how to be winners. That's something you just can't replace."

Mike Skinner, Earnhardt's teammate at Richard Childress Racing since 1996, said the two had a mutual respect.

It was long believed they didn't get along on or off the track.

"Dale was the kind of guy that never would come and tell me that he thought I was a great race car driver," Skinner said. "But he told everybody else. He told Richard a lot, and I've got a hell of a respect for him. But we've got to go on."

Moving on will be the toughest chore for Harvick.

The 2000 Busch Grand National rookie of the year never has driven in Winston Cup. He was scheduled to drive in seven races this season before moving full time into the series next year.

Harvick, who will continue to compete full time in the Busch series this season, understands there will be pressure.

"I'd like to say one thing," he said, waving an index finger to punctuate his point. "Dale Earnhardt was probably the best race car driver there is ever going to be in NASCAR. Nobody will ever replace him, and I think we all know that."

Childress will not use the No. 3 this year, but he left open the possibility of doing so in the future.

"Dale and I knew what we were going to do if we retired," he said. "Neither one of us knew anything like this would happen. We were going to carry on with the No. 3 car, and he was going to help me pick who we wanted to put in that car."